WILDERNESS EXPLORERS CLUB AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM

Sharing is caring!

Want to join Disney’s Wilderness Explorers Club? Find out more about other fun things you can do in the parks with our Ultimate Guide to Planning your Disney Holiday.

WILDERNESS EXPLORERS CLUB

The Wilderness Explorers Club is a Disney Pixar’s UP! inspired, challenge and scavenger hunt style adventure around the Animal Kingdom. If you know me in real life, you know how much I go on and on about the film – Jens’ first birthday party was UP! themed and so much fun. Everything about that film hugs my heart [and makes me cry into my ice cream]. Anyhow, we tried the Wilderness Explorers Club for the first time in 2013. The boys were dressed as little Wilderness Explorers as we were so excited to be able to meet Dug and Russell at the Clubhouse later that day and it was a really fantastic way to keep them entertained whilst we were pushing them from attraction to attraction. Disney’s Animal Kingdom has always felt like the hottest theme park to me and keeping the boys from getting overheated meant keeping them contained and calm for as long as we could. The Wilderness Explorers Club did the trick – and left us with a gorgeous souvenir, too.

WHERE CAN YOU BECOME A WILDERNESS EXPLORER?

The headquarters are near the bridge that goes from the Oasis to Discovery Island. You can find a Wilderness Leader there and they will give you a handbook and teach you the Explorers Call. You can also find the handbook throughout the park at various Wilderness Explorer Troop Leader locations in Africa, Asia, Dinoland U.S.A., Pandora – The World of Avatar and Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

WHERE ARE THE WILDERNESS EXPLORER KIOSKS?

There’s a map inside your Wilderness Explorers Club Handbook, but as you make your way around the park, they’re easy to spot – just look for the wooden WE signs, like the symbol on the badge! Once you reach a stop, a WE guide will tell you which challenge they have for you [but you can check this in your book too].

WILDERNESS EXPLORER CALL

Caw! Caw! Roar! Once your find a Wilderness Explorer, they will teach you the Wilderness Explorer Call. Caw! Caw! Roar! Get ready to learn the actions too. It’s awesome. The boys thought it was the best ever.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

It’s completely free to become a Wilderness Explorer! The handbook is an amazing souvenir and it costs nothing at all to join!

There are over 30 badges to collect and pop into your Handbook [we didn’t find them all but we weren’t full on Wilderness Exploring] throughout the park, and you can achieve them by completing different challenges, learning about the animals and conservation, playing games and then once you’ve done them, you can find one of the Wilderness Explorer troop leaders at the different locations, who will award your badges!

Just like in scouting, each badge you collect adds up – five badges makes you a little Tadpole, 10 badges means you’re a squiggly Minnow, and if you can collect 20 badges or even more, you become a Fish. Once you earn all of the badges, though, you are given the honorary title Senior Wilderness Explorer. We’re going for that this year. Watch this space.

POINTS TO NOTE ABOUT THE WILDERNESS EXPLORERS CLUB

The challenges aren’t impossible – but taking on all of them with little children takes a large amount of your day. Split it over a few days in the park, or save your guidebook to bring back on another trip.

Don’t forget to take your books to be signed by Dug and Russell in the parks – this makes your souvenir even more precious!